Campaign for bank tax gains speed
(12 February 2010 – Global) Pressure is starting to amount behind the UK’s ‘Robin Hood Tax’ on the financial sector, with major charities and political figures demanding a ‘new deal between banks and society’.
The tax, brushed aside by politicians and bankers as an impossible dream, has started to receive crucial backing, now buoyed by the support of the UN.
Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, last year became the first global leader to publicly call for its introduction as a way for banks to compensate society for causing the GFC.
Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy have since both voiced support for the idea and last month the World Economic Foundation gave its backing to a levy on financial institutions to be used to help bail out banks in any future crisis.
The ‘Robin Hood Tax’ would see 0.05 percent levied on each bank and hedge fund trade, ranging from shares to foreign exchange and derivatives, creating a cash pile to be spent on measures to combat domestic and international poverty as well as fight climate change.
A coalition of charities, trade unions and church groups argue that a ‘Robin Hood Tax’ could generate up to A$790 billion worldwide.
Celebrities Ewan McGregor, Radiohead and Bill Nighy are the latest to join the campaign for a tax on the financial sector.
The main argument in favour of a financial transaction tax is that it would raise a large sum of money painlessly, and would help to limit the sort of speculative attacks being seen on vulnerable countries such as Greece and Spain.
Because turnover in the global financial markets is so enormous, even a tax levied at 0.05 percent on every trade could raise A$451 billion, enough to double foreign aid, provide A$112 billion a year for poor countries to adapt to climate change, and leave A$112 over for rich countries to reduce their deficits.
Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, last year became the first global leader to publicly call for its introduction as a way for banks to compensate society for causing the GFC.
Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy have since both voiced support for the idea and last month the World Economic Foundation gave its backing to a levy on financial institutions to be used to help bail out banks in any future crisis.
The ‘Robin Hood Tax’ would see 0.05 percent levied on each bank and hedge fund trade, ranging from shares to foreign exchange and derivatives, creating a cash pile to be spent on measures to combat domestic and international poverty as well as fight climate change.
A coalition of charities, trade unions and church groups argue that a ‘Robin Hood Tax’ could generate up to A$790 billion worldwide.
Celebrities Ewan McGregor, Radiohead and Bill Nighy are the latest to join the campaign for a tax on the financial sector.
The main argument in favour of a financial transaction tax is that it would raise a large sum of money painlessly, and would help to limit the sort of speculative attacks being seen on vulnerable countries such as Greece and Spain.
Because turnover in the global financial markets is so enormous, even a tax levied at 0.05 percent on every trade could raise A$451 billion, enough to double foreign aid, provide A$112 billion a year for poor countries to adapt to climate change, and leave A$112 over for rich countries to reduce their deficits.
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